The fruit of the baobab tree has been eaten for centuries in Africa, but has only recently gained the coveted status of superfood due to its high content of vitamins and nutrients. In Kenya, it has become an economic force to be reckoned with.
For a related story, go to: http://p.dw.com/p/2azDo

The event followed a now familiar pattern: a small convoy of dusty 4x4 vehicles drove on to the edge of the airstrip at Galkayo in Puntland, north-central Somalia; armed security guards took up watchful positions nearby and a number of bemused-looking men stepped gingerly from the cars and lined up to have their photographs taken by the media.

On this occasion there were 11 of them; all had been hostages until that morning. They were sailors from a Malaysian cargo vessel that had been hijacked by Somali pirates a few years ago and held until a ransom was paid for their release.

One of them gave a brief account of what had happened. "On November 26, 2010 our ship was hijacked in the Indian Ocean. Their demand was 20 million. After that, they threatened the owner. You now increase money or we will shoot the crew. The owner didn't increase the money and then one Indian is shot with just three bullets. Then they hit us and tortured us. Tell your family to bring us money, otherwise we will kill you!"

The crew had been held for three and a half years but they were the fortunate ones. Five of their crew mates had died in that time. Now the survivors were going home and a UN plane with two envoys on board was flying in to see them to safety.

Such scenes have become relatively commonplace in Galkayo in recent times. Eighty percent of global trade is carried by sea and Somalia sits on a key maritime route linking Europe and Asia. More than 18,000 ships pass its shores every year. Over the past decade, Somali pirates, often former fishermen whose traditional livelihoods have been destroyed by foreign trawlers and toxic waste dumping, have attacked more than 300 vessels and kidnapped 700 people.

Faced with such a threat, the international community responded aggressively. In 2008, European states, the US and others began sending naval forces to these seas. They are still there today - warships, planes and helicopters patrolling thousands of square miles and doing a fair job of keeping the hijackers at bay. The UN and others have also played an increasing role in facilitating negotiations for the release of hostages - such as those set free at places such as Galkayo - for whose liberty large ransoms have been paid.

But if the problem is now slowly coming under control in Somalia, the same cannot be said for other parts of the world where piracy is on the increase. Lawlessness, desperation, poverty, greed and even political radicalism have brought the phenomenon to the waters of South America, Asia and, perhaps most aggressively, to West Africa.

In an effort to understand the reasons why, Bertrand Monnet, a French academic and filmmaker, has been travelling to piracy hot spots around the coast of Africa. In an extraordinary and very tense series of encounters, he came to face to face with heavily armed pirate gangs operating in and around the Niger Delta, where Nigeria's huge offshore oil industry, which employs thousands of expatriates, offers rich ransom pickings. It gradually became clear that piracy in West Africa has many of the same root causes as piracy in Somalia and elsewhere, not least of which is that those who don't share in the benefits and profits of global trade have ever fewer reasons these days to respect the security of those who do.

Source: Al Jazeera


- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe
- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera
- Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

In a 22 December 1958 letter, Morehouse president Benjamin Mays invited King to address the graduating class of 1959; King accepted six days later. In these prepared remarks—his earliest known usage of this title—King invokes his common themes of anticolonialism and black self-respect.1 He places the domestic “social revolution" in a global context and urges the graduates of his alma mater to rise above the limits of “individualistic concerns,” submitting that all people are “caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality.”

News coverage of the speech indicates that King modified this handwritten text at several points. He advised his audience to adhere to nonviolence, for the "oppressors would be happy if black Americans “would resort to physical violence” and reminded them of progress already made: “We’ve broken loose from the Egypt of slavery . . . and we stand on the border of the promised land in integration.”2 King reportedly closed with a warning against inaction: “If you go home, sit down and do nothing about the revolution which we are witnessing you will be the victim of a dangerous optimism.”3

There can be no gainsaying of the fact that we are experiencing today one of the greatest revolutions that the world has ever known. Indeed there have been other revolutions, but they have been local and isolated. The distinctive feature of the present revolution is that it is worldwide. It is shaking the foundations of the east and the west. It has engulfed every continent of the world. You can hear its deep rumblings from the lowest village street to the highest intellectual ivory tower. Every segment of society is being swept into its mainstream. The great challenge facing every member of this graduating class is to remain awake, alert and creative through this great revolution.

Shared for historical purposes. I do not own the rights.

#####
Reelblack's mission is to educate, elevate, entertain, enlighten, and empower through Black film. If there is content shared on this platform that you feel infringes on your intellectual property, please email me at Reelblack@mail.com and info@reelblack.com with details and it will be promptly removed.

From the US National Archives.
Documents the early, turbulent years of OEO'S experiment in police-community relations in Washington, DC R.1: Police and citizens express their attitudes toward each other. A citizens committee is appointed by the D.C. government, but dissension ensues over control of the program. Project director, Robert Shallow addresses the group; community leader Marion Barry urges citizen control, A pilot precinct is finally selected. R. 2: Police engage in training sessions, and community leaders struggle to replace the committee with elected representatives. A citizens' board is elected and the white project leader is replaced by a black official, Fred Lander. R. 3: Dissension between OEO and the community continues, but several programs including citizen riders, an emergency center, local police recruiting and an escort service, get underway. The board continues to struggle, and the program is refunded. At the films close, a small boy expresses his bitterness towards the police."

#####
Reelblack's mission is to educate, elevate, entertain, enlighten, and empower through Black film. If there is content shared on this platform that you feel infringes on your intellectual property, please email me at Reelblack@mail.com and info@reelblack.com with details and it will be promptly removed.

Ted Vincent explores the work of Harry Haywood (born Haywood Hall), who, in addition to being a member of the African Blood Brotherhood, also initiated the Black Belt Republic scheme into the Communist Party, and continued as a Black Nationalist theorist

Credit To: Pacifica Radio Archives

Michelle Alexander, highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State University, and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, delivers the 30th Annual George E. Kent Lecture, in honor of the late George E. Kent, who was one of the earliest tenured African American professors at the University of Chicago.

The Annual George E. Kent Lecture is organized and sponsored by the Organization of Black Students, the Black Student Law Association, and the Students for a Free Society.

➡ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/UCHICAGOytSubscribe

About #UChicago:
Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research. This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholars to challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas.

#UChicago on the Web:
Home: http://bit.ly/UCHICAGO-homepage
News: http://bit.ly/UCHICAGO-news
Facebook: http://bit.ly/UCHICAGO-FB
Twitter: http://bit.ly/UCHICAGO-TW
Instagram: http://bit.ly/UCHICAGO-IG

University of Chicago on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/uchicago ***

ACCESSIBILITY: If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please email digicomm@uchicago.edu.

⁣Ba-Mbuti or Ba-Twa - Democratic Republic of the Congo [1938]

As Kowie Bamboo Farm - EcoPlanet's Bamboo Plantation in South Africa's Eastern Cape - undergoes a transformation from degraded old agricultural land to a sustainability certified bamboo farm, the lives of those working for and living around EcoPlanet Bamboo's operations are also changing for the better... Learn more about the Kowie Bamboo Farm http://bit.ly/2rl33Gr

#NewBlackDaddy Diary 10: My son was a week & a day... I began reflecting on what it means to be a Provider.

To stay tuned, check out the channel YouTube.com/ShakaRaSpeaks

Watch All Reflections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLprLQX3Dms&list=PL-gMpPbGvuj1ydTRKKF4qTSeEhYz6zp8o

------------------------------------------------------------

► ABIBITUMI: https://www.abibitumi.com/members/shakara/
► ABIBITUMITV: https://abibitumitv.com/@ShakaRa

► Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/shakar....aspeaks/?sub_confirm
► https://twitter.com/ShakaRaSpeaks
► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShakaRaSpeaks/
► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shakaraspeaks/

The Real Mobile Phone Wars - DRC, 10 October 2001

As the high tech age takes over more and more of our lives manufacturers will go to any lengths to get the sometimes scarce minerals that go into them. Tantalum is one such rare ingredient. Few of us know that in the middle of Africa much human suffering is created in the pursuit of it.

Subscribe to Journeyman here: http://www.youtube.com/subscri....ption_center?add_use

Coltan is a valuable metal because it can be processed and manufactured into a component called a capacitor, which sits on the circuit board of mobile phone and other portable electronic devices. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world's second biggest supplier of coltan (after Australia), supplying an estimated 18 per cent of the world market. The trouble with coltan from Congo is that it is fuelling the war there. Various rebel groups and militias are mining, stealing, taxing and/or smuggling coltan to raise funds for their war effort. A recent UN report has declared the trade in coltan from Congo illegal because the legitimate and internationally recognised Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo does not license it. Instead the trade of coltan is helping to destabilise that government. Our reporter, JULIANA RUHFUS, travels via Uganda across the Kasindi border crossing, to Congo, her quest to find the source of coltan. Her often dangerous journey takes her via coltan traders, miners and warlords including the Mayi Mayi.

For more information, visit https://www.journeyman.tv/film/1170

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/journeymanpictures
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/JourneymanNews
https://twitter.com/JourneymanVOD
Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/journeymanpictures

A report by Juliana Ruhfus for Unreported World. Produced by Mentorn. Ref. 1170
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures